| Wok of Life (福满人间) |
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|---|---|
| Genre | Comedic Drama |
| Starring | Chew Chor Meng Ann Kok Evelyn Tan Richard Low Jin Yinji Zhu Houren Zheng Geping |
| Opening theme | 福满人间 sung by Ann Kok |
| Country of origin | Singapore |
| Language(s) | Chinese |
| No. of episodes | 50 |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 45 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | MediaCorp TV Channel 8 |
Wok Of Life (Chinese: 福满人间) is a long-running Chinese drama which aired in Singapore in 1999. The show starred Chew Chor Meng, Ann Kok, and Evelyn Tan as the main characters.
Contents |
Ri-an, an apprentice cook, turns up at Hua Da Hotel to answer an advertisement for the job of a cook. He keeps the matter from his teacher, Nanhua. To Ri-an’s disappointment, the panel of interviewers do not like the way he cooks the dish. Nanhua, the resident chef of Fu Man Lou, sets very high standards for his staff. They respect and fear him at the same time.
Ri-an meets an American-trained chef, Yaoqing, and is impressed with his culinary skills. Ri-an offers to take him on an eating spree around the country. Yaoqing is hounded by the press at the seafood restaurant and decides to go back to Ri-an’s place. Nanhua is upset as Ri-an has misplaced Yue-e’s photo. When Ri-an learns that Yue-e is coming back to Singapore, he arranges for Nanhua to pick her up.
Yaoqing’s pepper crab proves to be more popular with the restaurant patrons than Nanhua’s stewed duck. Nanhua is peeved. The mentally slow Wu Jin gets cheated by dishonest customers when he sells lottery tickets. Jia-sao blames it on Yue-e’s incompetence when she helped to deliver Wu Jin years ago. Suddenly, Nanhua passes out and is sent to the hospital. As he enters the ambulance, he tries to tell Ri-an something.
Ri-an mistakenly thinks that Nanhua wants him to take his place in the contest. He loses to Yaoqing and, feeling utterly ashamed of himself, he contemplates leaving home. Nanhua tells Yue-e and Daixiang that he deserves retribution for what he did to Yaoqing’s family. Ri-an and Zhenzhen are transported back to the ‘60s after an urn toppled and dropped on them.
Ri-an thinks he has died and gone to another dimension. Soon after, Ri-an realizes he is back in the’60s and has become Yongfu. He is eager to return to the ‘90s as he wants to claim the prize money he won in Toto.
Dadi runs a restaurant named Fu Man Lou. He was bewildered when Ri-an does not recognise them. Ri-an is confused when Dadi and his family addresses him as You Yongfu. He discovers that a man called You Yongfu worked at Fu Man Lou, and had an uncanny resemblance to himself. He had escaped to Malacca after he thought he killed someone. On the boat to Malacca, Yongfu meets a woman named Daxiang and makes her pregnant.
Ri-an finds himself falling in love with a woman called Saiman, who was Yongfu's worst enemy. It turned up that Yongfu and Saiman were once lovers, but had fallen out with each other after it was revealed that Yongfu, who was a playboy, had 107 other girlfriends. Suddenly, Daxiang arrived to stay with her father, Mr. Four-eyes. Ri-an was shocked to see that it was a younger version of his own mother.
Daixiang, who is unknowing pregnant with Yongfu's son, who happens to be Ri-an himself, has a crush on Ri-an the moment she sees him. She puts on her most feminine front.
Dadi is kidnapped and his kidnappers demand a large ransom of 20,000 dollars. Ri-an meets up with Yongfu in Malacca and tells him that he is his future son, but the latter thinks he is his half-brother. Back in Singapore, Daixiang mistakes Ri-an for Yong-fu and is furious to see him with Zhenzhen. She threatens to commit suicide unless ‘Yongfu’ (Ri-an) marries her.
Dadi leaves the Fu Man Lou to Nanhua. Suddenly, a very pregnant Daixiang returns and demands that Ri-an marry her. Zhenzhen suspects Daixiang’s unborn baby is Ri-an, and Ri-an from the ‘90s shudders at the thought. Daixiang gives birth to her baby, Ri-an and Zhenzhen finds themselves back to the ‘90s, as two Ri-an's cannot exist at the same time.
A fire breaks out in Fu Man Lou and Nanhua thinks that You Yongfu (Ri-an) and Ang Mo Kio (Zhenzhen) were trapped inside but chooses to run away from the fire, saving himself. He feels guilty about it when Yongfu and Ang Mo Kio 'disappear'.
Back in the 1990s, Nanhua is shocked to learn that Yaoqing is his son. Ri-an finally verifies that Daixiang is his mother. He cannot get over the loss of the Toto ticket despite being ticked off by Zhenzhen. Yaoqing refuses to acknowledge the fact that Nanhua was his father.
Yaoqing is arrested while Nanhua is warded in the intensive care unit. Nanhua finally regains consciousness and leaves the running of the restaurant to Ri-an. Unexpectedly, Dadi's sons pay a visit to Fu Man Lou. They bring Nanhua to the real You Yongfu, who had become a monk!
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